Advertisement In theory, China’s “zero COVID” approach is a top-down policy of the central government under President Xi Jinping. In reality, the task of interpreting and implementing the policy falls largely to subnational government actors. This has prompted the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to reinvigorate its traditional grassroots governance technique of mass mobilization. But while this has been an effective tool of social control during the pandemic, persistent mobilization threatens to hamper effective administration. Evolving from the revolutionary “mass campaigns” under Mao Zedong, the modern Chinese state continues to mobilize…
China’s Risky Revival of Mao-Era Grassroots Mobilization Methods
